GLCMPMNT General Ledger Comparative File Maintenance

The purpose of the Comparative File application is to maintain a prior‑year comparative amount that will be understood as the previous year's year‑to‑date acti­vity for a given account, as of the end of the particular account­ing period.

For example, sales of a particular product were $5,000 during each period of the previous fiscal year. Since P&L accounts are closed out at the end of each fiscal year there is a prior year beginning balance of zero. The comparative amounts for this account would appear as follows:

-----Comparatives-----

Begin Balance

0.00

Period - 1 Balance

- 5,000.00

Period - 2 Balance

- 10,000.00

Period - 3 Balance

- 15,000.00

Period - 4 Balance

- 20,000.00

etc.

Balance Sheet accounts are treated in much the same way although the prior year beginning balance would not necessarily be zero. Take for instance a cash account that had a beginning balance of $15,000 last year and increased by $1,000 during each period of the year. The comparative amounts for this account would appear as follows.

----- Comparatives -----

Begin Balance

15,000.00

Period - 1 Balance

16,000.00

Period - 2 Balance

17,000.00

Period - 3 Balance

18,000.00

Period - 4 Balance

19,000.00

etc.

Be sure not to enter comparatives for undefined periods. If your fiscal year is comprised of 12 monthly periods you must leave the entry for period number 13 blank.

When comparative figures are printed on a Balance Sheet statement, the figure that is entered for that period is printed on the Balance Sheet. When comparative figures are printed on a P & L Statement, the figure that is entered for that period will print in the Year-To-Date column on he statement. The amount of change calculated from the previous period will print in the current column.

Credit entries must contain a minus sign in the first position to distinguish them from debit entries as in the examples above.

There is no default in the entry of comparatives.

At the end of the first fiscal year you will run the Year‑End Procedure application. This application will automatically update your comparative figures. Comparatives need only be entered once when the package is being first set up. Comparatives may be deleted or purged individually by account using Delete mode or they may be purged for a range using the List mode.

The Comparative Year refers to your fiscal year. Whenever a relative reference is made in this manual to the Comparative Year such as PY for Previous Year, the previous year is assumed to be equal to one year less than the year of the last period of the period file.